Top of the Field

OPA's National Juried Exhibition celebrates some of the best artists working in representational oil painting today.

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Chris Kling, Into the Surf, oil, 24 x 36"

Oil Painters of America will be holding its 34th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils at the tail end of May. The prestigious month-long exhibition showcases the finest in representational artwork created by nearly 200 juried artists—some of the very best in the country—as well as many esteemed Master Signature OPA artists across North America. It's a celebration of talent and passion for the traditional art of representational oil painting, with a vast range of artists' work on display for collectors to explore.

Exhibiting artist Barbara Coleman brings a mountainscape titled Morning's First Touch to the 2025 show. “The morning light over the Sandia Mountains stirs a quiet awe," Coleman shares. “As the sun begins to rise, it backlights the peaks, casting canyons into soft lavender shadow. In the foreground, an arroyo winds through golden chamisa and dusky green juniper, their colors glowing in the crisp desert air. This fleeting hush of morning—where light and land breathe as one—inspires me to paint, to hold onto that moment when the world feels newly awakened and wholly alive.”

Aimee Erickson, Sunlight in Winter, oil on canvas, 40 x 30"

Aimee Erickson's figurative work Sunlight in Winter depicts a woman sitting at a table with a child in her lap. “Sharon and I are sitting at the table, talking about something. Jonah is on her lap, playing with a stamp. He presses it into his hand repeatedly, then hers,” says Erickson. “The winter sun casts crazy bright light onto them. Mother and child, a popular theme in painting. The shadow from the window looks like a cross. It occurs to me that religious paintings show us something about ourselves. The exalted is in the here and now.”